Night Characters

Eliezer

He is the narrator of Night, who represents the author. The book traces the teenage Eliezer’s experience at the concentration camp and his psychological state as he witnesses the worst instincts men are capable of and the atrocities they perpetrate, which robs him of his faith. Though Eliezer stands in for Wiesel, his narrative is representative of the experiences of the hundreds and thousands of Jews who suffered the Holocaust.

Shlomo

A grocer, adviser, and religious leader of Sighet, Shlomo is Eliezer’s father who is respected by the entire Jewish community at Sighet. He is a cultured and pragmatic man. He is the only character other than Eliezer who is present throughout the memoir. He and his son strive to remain together throughout their time at the concentration camp.

Mrs Wiesel

She is Eliezer’s mother. In Elie’s last view of her, she is stroking her daughter Tzipora’s hair, trying to reassure her.

Hilda Wiesel

She is Eliezer’s oldest sister. She is engaged and works at the family store.

Beatrice Wiesel

“Béa” is the second child who also assists in the store.

Tzipora Wiesel

Elie’s seven-year-old sister who doesn’t survive the camp.

Moishe the Beadle

He is Elie’s teacher of Jewish mysticism. Moishe is a poor Jew who lives in Sighet. He is deported before the rest of the Sighet Jews but escapes and returns to tell the town what the Nazis are doing to the Jews. However, people dismiss him as a lunatic.

Berkovitz

He is a villager who returns from Budapest who has witnessed how the Fascists are terrorizing Hungarian Jews.

Akiba Drumer

A Jew who is a prisoner at the concentration camp. He loses all faith in God as a result of his experience.

Madame Schächter

A Jewish woman from Sighet who is deported in the same cattle car as Eliezer. She keeps screaming every night that she can see furnaces at a distance and is considered insane. However, she proves to be a prophetess at the end as the train arrives at the crematoria of Auschwitz.

Juliek

Juliek is a young Polish musician Elie befriends at Auschwitz. At the end, he is found dead with his violin trampled.

Tibi and Yosi

These are two brothers with whom Eliezer becomes friendly at Buna. They are Zionists. Together, the three make a plan to move to Palestine after the war.

Dr. Josef Mengele

Eliezer meets the infamous German physician Dr. Mengele at Auschwitz. Mengele was the notorious doctor who presides over the selection of arrivals at Auschwitz/Birkenau. Nicknamed the “Angel of Death,” Mengele’s decision sentenced millions of Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers. He also conducted deadly experiments on the prisoners at the camps.

Idek

He is Eliezer’s Kapo (a prisoner conscripted by the Nazis to police other prisoners) at Buna. Though Kapos suffered similar cruelty at the hands of the Nazis, they were as cruel to the prisoners as the Germans were. During moments of insane rage, Idek beats Eliezer.

Franek

A former student from Warsaw, he is Eliezer’s foreman at Buna. He notices Eliezer’s gold tooth and gets a dentist in the camp to pry it out with a rusty spoon. Franek’s willingness to torment Elie’s father suggests that the foreman has lost his humanity in the daily supervision of inmates.

Rabbi Eliahou

A devout Jewish prisoner whose son abandons him. Eliezer prays that he will never be cruel to his father in this manner and remains devoted to him till the end.

Zalman

A fellow prisoner and a worker at the electrical warehouse, Zalman devotes himself to the Talmud to escape reality. He is trampled to death during the run to Gleiwitz.

Meir

A starved prisoner who kills his own father for a crust of bread. Meir is killed when others attack him and grab the stolen bread.

Meir Katz

He is a friend of Elie’s father, who saves Elie from an unidentified attacker.